IRCTC vendors are extorting money from passengers in trains with the support of the Railway Ministry

On one hand, the country’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav are constantly trying to improve railway operations and eliminate corruption that has spread to the root of the railways, but departmental corruption is not coming to an end.

Despite many restrictions, IRCTC vendors charge arbitrary prices for food items from passengers in almost all trains going towards North India.

And if some of these passengers oppose this and complain about it by calling 139 or on the IRCTC website or on X (Twitter) to the Railway Ministry, then they are pacified by giving them special treatment. No action is taken.

Railways has started a separate Rail Seva Department to address these complaints. If a passenger complains, then the people of this department contact the passenger and ask for the PNR Number and then that PNR Number is immediately given to the canteen manager (IRCTC) of that train.

The canteen manager meets the concerned passenger, listens to his complaint and then apologises for the illegal collection and settles the matter. Meanwhile, all the IRCTC vendors of the same train recognise him and charge him the correct price for the items.

But the poor people unaware of IRCTC’s food price list buy food items by paying arbitrary prices to the vendors.

The latest case is of train no. 13202 going from Lokmanya Tilak Terminus of Mumbai (Maharashtra) to Patna Junction. In this train, passengers are being charged Rs. 10 for plain tea of ​​50 ml.

Similarly, Rs. 20 is being charged for a water bottle (that too not Railneer). The vendor has said that the price for dinner is Rs. 150 for vegetarian food and Rs. 160 for non-vegetarian (two eggs). In the official food menu of IRCTC, the price of vegetarian food is Rs. 70 and that of non-vegetarian (two eggs) is Rs. 80.

A complaint has also been made to the railway officials for information. The PNR No of the said passenger is 8804317433. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav needs to pay personal attention to this matter.